Watercress Research

Watercress (Nasturtium officinale) is a leafy salad crop known for its peppery flavour and high nutritional value. It is a crop that is traditionally linked to the south of the U.K. and chalk stream ecosystems. Despite this, it remains understudied and underdeveloped.

The aim of this project is to explore the genetic basis of important agronomic traits in watercress, such as phytonutrient richness and low-input cultivation. The project capitalizes on Next Generation Sequencing technologies, such RNA sequencing, to develop resources for watercress breeding.